County Boundary is Last Hitch in Clan’s Deed Dream

September 30, 2024

Top: Lower Bokan awaits the resolution of a border dispute between Sinoe and Grand Kru Counties to obtain its customary land deed. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

By Harry Browne

DIYANKPO, Sinoe County – An unsolved boundary issue between two towns in Sinoe and Grand Kru Counties is stalling a clan’s pursuit of a customary land deed.

Diyankpo, a town in the Lower Bokon Clan in Jaedae District, Sinoe County, has a boundary dispute with Neeklakpo in Grand Kru County. Lower Bokon is pursuing a customary land deed but has seen its efforts stall due to the disputed area, approximately 8,000 hectares.

“We could not proceed with the survey. We had to put a halt to it, come to town, and see how we can resolve the conflict before going back in the field,” says Dr. Mahmoud Solomon, the Acting Commissioner of the Land Authority’s Department of Land Administration. Solomon says Diyankpo and Neeklakpo recognized two different boundaries that must be harmonized.

“Diyankpo one of the towns in Sinoe County is showing points that belong to their land that falls in Grand Kru. Neeklakpo is showing points in Sinoe County that belong to Grand Kru,” Solomon adds.

Solomon discloses that the Land Authority engaged the Liberia Institute for Geo-Information Services (LIGIS), the National Election Commission and the National Legislature—all of whom have county border data—to resolve the dispute.

“The Acts that created those counties will be able to show the boundary. Even though it will not be clearly defined it will give us an idea of the commencement and all those towns that fall within a particular clan,” Solomon explains. He says the matter would be resolved soon.

‘It was so difficult’

Lower Bokon borders the Beah Clan along the Dugbe River. Beah Clan had recognized another boundary apart from the one both clans had recognized for generations. However, the Beah Clan later dropped its contention, ending the conflict.

A map of Lower Bokon Clan by the Foundation for Community Initiatives (FCI). File picture

Lower Bokon had another situation with Neejlah Clan resolved in an MoU last December. Both parties now agree a local hill is their boundary. They have decided to use the boundary for future surveys, and that residents who violate the MoU be called out.

“It was so difficult in [resolving the boundary issues]. Other communities would say this is the boundary and other communities would disagree,” recalls David Sonpon, the chairman of the Lower Bokon Community Land and Development Committee.

“Some people, whenever you reach a boundary harmonization stage, they want to claim another side. That is the problem,” adds Matthew Weseh, a mobilizer with the Foundation for Community Initiatives (FCI).

FCI has worked with Lower Bokon since 2019. The NGO’s work with the clan is part of a US$3.45 million project funded by the International Land and Forest Tenure Facility. The Margibi-based NGO also works in the same district as Gboyonnoh Karmbo, which awaits the Land Authority to survey the clan’s land area to get a deed.

A boy head-carries a container of water in Diyankpo, Lower Bokon Clan. The DayLight/Matenneh Keita

‘There must be an agreement’

Home to over 5,000 people in the Jaedae District, Lower Bokon identified itself as a landowning community in 2019. In these five years, it has established a governance body, the Community Land Development and Management Committee (CLDMC). It has bylaws and a constitution, and mapped its 7,283-hectares land, according to FCI.

The clan has a rich culture. Kru is the dominant language. There is a traditional council that is headed by a chair. The highest traditional person is the High Priest, who conducts the Poro Society or the school for men. The leader of the clan is the Clan Chief, while the heads of towns are the Town Chiefs. Beans cannot be planted on the clan’s land, and no one builds a house or hut there with thatches.

Road connectivity is a problem for the 13-town Lower Bokon Clan. Some of the communities—such as Sunshine, Diyankpo, Sunday Village, and Konwonkpo—are accessible by vehicle while Neponklee is by bike only. The roads to the rest of the communities are by walking.

Once the boundary dispute with Neeklakpo is resolved, Lower Clan will be ready to get its customary land deed. It has forests and a huge potential for gold. The Land Rights Act of 2018 empowers communities to own lands where their ancestors lived.

Residents of Lower Bokon welcome an opportunity to manage and benefit from their land, a right they have even without a deed.

“Before you can get into our forest, there must be an agreement,” says Theresa Wleh, the chairlady of Diyankpo and widow of four children. “When there is no agreement, we will not allow you to get into our forest.”

Land Authority Under Fire To Issue Community Deeds

September 26, 2024

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Top: The Chairman of the Land Authority Atty. Adams Manobah speaks to The DayLight on the margins of the Second Land Conference in Ganta, Nimba County. The DayLight/Harry Browne

By Esau J. Farr

GANTA, Nimba County – Delegates at the 2024 National Land Conference on Tuesday called on the Liberia Land Authority to speed up the issuance of deeds to customary communities.

Dozens of communities have completed the required process to obtain a customary land deed under the Land Rights Act but are yet to get their titles. Out of some 150 communities, only 36 have received their deeds since the creation of the law in 2018, according to available figures.

“There is a need to fast-track the formalization of customary land in Liberia, and grand their deeds after the Ganta conference,” said James Yarsiah, the chief organizer of the conference, the second in two years.

“Deeds are taking too long to process, the cost is too high and donors are getting concerned,” Yarsiah added.

The conference seeks to review the implementation of the Land Rights Act, which is hailed worldwide but has faced enforcement challenges. The Land Rights Act guarantees customary landownership but requires rural communities to complete a legal process.

Dozens of communities have completed the process but LLA has yet to conduct an official survey to confirm their land areas and present their deeds.

Last year a group of CSOs accused the Land Authority of delaying communities whose processes are funded by CSOs and speeding up those supported by the regulator. That point echoed at the event before hundreds of conference delegates.

“The issuance of titles should not be restricted to few communities,” said Loretta Pope-Kai, the executive director of the Foundation for Community Initiatives (FCI).

FCI implements a project funded by the International Land and Forest Tenure Facility, an NGO based in Sweden. That project seeks customary deeds for 24 communities in seven counties, some awaiting deeds.

Representative Nyahn Flomo urges the Land Authority to rally the Liberian government for funding to support its community land deed processes. The DayLight/Harry Browne

“It is now time that the Liberia LLA exercises its mandate by issuing deeds to communities that are ready or have gone through the customary land formalization processes,” added Mrs. Pope-Kai.

In an interview with The DayLight, the Chairman of the Land Authority Adams Manobah said the regulator was cash-strapped to conduct surveys. Manobah said the government had not provided the regulator funding for customary land activities

“If the government does not make it a priority to fund the implementation of the Land Rights [Act], very soon the donors may withdraw from the field,” Manobah told The DayLight on the margins of the conference.

But Manobah’s comments do not reflect the whole picture. Even though the Liberian government has not funded customary-deed activities, international NGOs and foreign governments have.

The Tenure Facility project allots US$280,000 to the Land Authority over a three-year period.

The Land Management Activity, a five-year USAID project, supports the Land Authority’s surveys and deeding exercises.

Representative of Nimba County District #2 Nyahn Fomo called on the regulator to change its approach to mobilizing resources from the government. Flomo, a former land rights campaigner, urged the regulator to rally the support of the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning and the House of Representatives.

He said the Land Authority was “crawling” in meeting timebound provisions of the law.

Graduates Cut Grass at GVL

September 20, 2024

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Top: The University of Liberia is graduating about 2,600 students this month. Lux Radio/ Isaiah Joseph Gbainhea

By James Harding Giahyue

MONROVIA – The University of Liberia is graduating some 2,600 students this year for the skilled labor market—perhaps, including Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL). However, they may have to settle for unskilled jobs like two alumni of the university and another school.

The two individuals have bachelor’s degrees but worked as casual laborers with GVL. Their tasks include cutting grass with handheld tools to plant palm trees in the Tartweh-Drapoh Chiefdom, Kpanyan District, Sinoe County.

“I felt it was useless for me to leave my home in Sinoe to go Monrovia and get a degree, come back and GVL gave me a cutlass to brush,” said Lawrence Doe, a 2018 general agriculture graduate of the University of Liberia, in a phone interview. Doe worked for GVL as a casual laborer for six weeks in 2020.

“For me, knowing myself, I said it was an abuse to education,” Doe added.

Another graduate worked for over a year as a casual laborer before GVL assigned him an office post. The DayLight is not identifying the worker to protect him/her from reprisal.

The newspaper obtained copies of the fieldworker graduates’ diplomas and verified their stories with Nunu Broh, the chairman of the Tartweh-Drapoh Agriculture Committee. Odune Dumbar, a leader in Tartweh-Drapoh, a chiefdom in the Kpayan District and hometown of Doe and the unidentified worker.

Broh, Dumbar and other community leaders had encouraged the two individuals to take the jobs as a stepping stone for top offers.

The unidentified worker stayed there for over a year and finally got a deserving job. For his part, Doe found a decent job and left the company.

Golden Veroleum Liberia hires university graduates as casual laborers at its palm plantation. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

No employment amid vacancies

Liberia signed a 65-year concession agreement with GVL, covering 220,000 hectares of ancestral land in southeastern and southcentral Liberia.

The 2010 agreement obligates the company to employ skilled Liberians from in and out of its concession areas.

GVL has long violated that provision, prompting criticism from then-Vice President Joseph Boakai in 2015. GVL welcomed the criticism but outlined its supposed employment history.

Amid its skilled employment obligations, evidence shows GVL has vacancies for such workers.

In 2020, GVL laid off nearly 450 workers due to the coronavirus pandemic and the fall in the price of crude palm oil on the world market. Later that year, it redundant an additional 250 workers, the fourth layoff in seven years.

Earlier this year, an environmental audit report found that GVL had a vacancy for a health and safety staff at its palm oil mill in Sinoe’s Tarjuwon District.

The company has yet to hire graduates for a new clinic in Tartweh-Drapoh despite a protest there last year. Letters between GVL and Tartweh—obtained by The DayLight—suggest GVL has several vacancies for human resource officer, finance officer, transport manager, safety officer and assistant manager, etc.

GVL denies employing graduates as unskilled laborers. “This is not to the knowledge of GVL,” said spokesman Alphonso Kofi in an email. “We will be glad if you provide some names…” The DayLight provided Lawrence Doe and has not heard back from Kofi.

Green Livelihoods Alliance (GLA) provided funding for this story. The DayLight maintained editorial independence over the story’s content.

No Top Posts for Landowners At GVL

September 16, 2024

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Top: A GVL fieldworker at work in 2023.The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

By Esau J. Farr

TARTWEH-DRAPOH, Sinoe County – During a visit to Indonesia in 2015, then-Vice President Joseph Boakai urged Golden Veroleum Liberia to employ qualified Liberians in senior managerial positions. GVL welcomed Boakai’s comments while outlining its assumed employment history.

Nearly 10 years on, and Boakai at the helm of Liberia’s leadership, GVL is yet to fulfill that promise, including to Tartweh-Drapoh, one of its landowning, affected communities.

In 2014, Tartweh-Drapoh Chiefdom signed an MoU with GVL for 8,011 hectares of farmland in the Kpanyan District. The MoU was part of the GVL’s 65-year concession agreement with Liberia, covering 220,000 hectares in southeastern and southcentral Liberia. The agreement requires GVL to train and hire citizens of the landowning communities for top-level employment.

But GVL has failed to live up to the terms of the MoU. Tartweh-Drapoh citizens are only employed as fieldworkers, some of them university graduates.

This led to a protest in May last year. Residents stopped work at the plantation and prevented all GVL’s vehicles from plying routes in the chiefdom.

GVL then scheduled a meeting with citizens to hear their concerns. The parties signed a resolution in which GVL agreed to hire Tartweh-Drapoh citizens in senior positions in a month, among other things.

One document shows that the chiefdom submitted 10 names for as many senior managerial positions as possible. Some of the posts include human resource officer, finance officer, transport manager, safety officer, assistant manager and chief of security.

Two days later, Tartweh-Drapoh submitted five names for the human resource officer job upon the request of GVL.

Nunu Broh, chairman, Tartweh Agricultural Committee. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

Gbarngo Quenah, a sustainability officer, requested individuals to apply and present qualification documents. In some cases, university graduates had to present high school papers, which—The DayLight has seen evidence—was done.

However, since then, none of the applicants have been hired, though GVL had said it would fast-track their employment. Earlier this month, GVL failed to open a clinic meant to be staffed by Tartweh-Drapoh residents per the resolution.

“I feel bad nobody has been hired by GVL,” said Nunu Broh, Chairman of the Tratweh-Drapoh agricultural committee. “Anytime they (GVL) go to management meeting, there can be nobody to represent the community.”

‘Abuse to education’

The DayLight interviewed two Tartweh-Drapoh graduates who, evidence shows, GVL employed as fieldworkers.

Some GVL fieldworkers in Grand Kru in 2023. The DayLight/James Harding Giahyue

One of the graduate fieldworkers, who preferred anonymity due to fear of reprisal, said over a year his job was to clear thick, combative bushes to plant palm trees.

Lawrence Doe, the other graduate fieldworker, performed the same task for about six weeks in 2020. A 2018 general agriculture alumnus of the University of Liberia, Doe had been advised by the elders of Tartweh-Drapoh to accept the job to get a supervisor post. But that never happened, and he left and found another job.

“And for me, knowing myself, I said it was an abuse to education,” Doe said.

“I felt it was useless for me to leave my home in Sinoe to go Monrovia and get a degree, come back and GVL gave me a cutlass to brush,” Doe added. Broh and Odune Dumbar, a prominent Tartweh-Dropoh citizen, corroborated his and the other man’s story.

In an email response to The DayLight’s queries, GVL claims that the Tartweh-Drapoh MoU does not guarantee residents top posts.

But that response contradicts the MoU. The document gives the chiefdom first preference when senior positions are vacant. It says, “In the case, GVL has vacancies for… junior and senior managerial posts in the concession area, the qualified citizens of the communities shall be considered for said employment…”

GVL has a concession with the Liberian government covering 220,000 hectares of land in Sinoe, Grand Kru, Maryland, River Gee and River Cesss. New Narratives/Harry Browne

Furthermore, there is evidence of such vacancies in Tartweh-Drapoh. In 2020, GVL laid off nearly 450 staff, including 28 in the chiefdom, who have not been reinstated or replaced. And the communication exchanges related to last year’s resolution prove vacancies exist.

Also, in the email, GVL claims it has senior managers from Tartweh-Drapoh. “Some are currently serving in key decision-making positions, ranging from the human resource, agronomy, transport, community affairs, health, etc.,” the company said without presenting evidence.

Like in the case of the MoU, the evidence does not support GVL’s employment comments. Again, the resolution-related exchanges show that there are vacancies in all those areas.

Quenah, the sustainability officer with oversight of the chiefdom, confirmed that in a communication in May last year. “We acknowledge your communication… submitting to the sustainability five [Tartweh-Drapoh] sons for the position of [Human Resource] officer,” her letter read.

Tartweh residents said they would hold a meeting to discuss the chiefdom’s next course of action. Meanwhile, President Boakai did not mention jobs on his visit to Indonesia for the Indonesia-Africa Forum earlier this month, rather investment in Liberia.

Green Livelihoods Alliance provided funding for this story. The DayLight maintained editorial independence over the story’s content.

‘I am Happy’: Widow Celebrates Community Land Rights

September 13, 2024

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Top: Theresa Wleh, Chairlady of the Diyenkpo community sitting with a smile and children in the back. The Daylight/Matenneh Keita

By Emmanuel Sherman

DIYENKPO, Sinoe County – Theresa Wleh lives with her four children in the home of her late husband. Not just that house, Wleh farms on the plot of her late husband’s farmland, and she is fully recognized by her in-laws.

“I am happy,” Wleh tells The DayLight in an interview in Diyenkpo, a Sinoe town on the border with Grand Kru. It is the headquarters of the Lower Bokon Clan located in the Jaedae District.

“The reason that I am happy is since [my husband died], I am still sitting down here. When you want to move me, my kids are here,” Wleh adds.

Wleh knows that things have not always been that way. Under a decade ago, women had no right to own community land or participate in ancestral land matters. Generations of ill-fated customs and traditions discriminated against womenfolk, often leaving them to their male relatives’ mercy. On the other hand, powerful chiefs and elders, who were the custodians of lands, decided on matters without women’s consent.

All that changed in 2018 when Liberia created the Land Rights Act, which granted women customary land ownership. The new law also mandates women’s participation in community land governance.

“I am happy for the government of Liberia to give women the right to own their land and have their deed. The land deed is important to us mothers and our children because when we leave tomorrow…, it is for your child or children,” Wleh says.

‘I used to feel bad’

Together with women’s landownership, the new law recognizes community land rights, based on local customs and folkways. It is the main highlight of the law, turning around decades of marginalization of rural people.

While communities own ancestral lands by law, they should go through legal requirements to get a deed. Lower Bokon is at the boundary-harmonization stage of those requirements, having identified as a landowning clan, created a land body and mapped its assumed 7,283-hectare landmass. Several communities have obtained customary deeds, including Zolowee, Gbassa and Zor-Yolowee in Nimba.

But Lower Bokon has to resolve a boundary dispute with Neeklakpo, a town in Grand Kru, for the Land Authority to present its deed.

An elevated view of the Lower Bokon Clan, which covers an assumed 7,283 hectares of land in Sinoe’s Jaedae District. The DayLight/Derick Snyder

The Land Authority is working with other government agencies to resolve the dispute, according to Dr. Mahmoud Solomon, the Acting Commissioner for Land Administration. Solomon said the regulator was comparing data from those agencies, including the National Legislature, to determine the border points.

“We will soon resume to have it resolved amicably,” Solomon says in an interview at his Ashmun Street office. Bokon is one of the dozens of communities whose lands the Land Authority is formalizing as part of a US$3.45 million project funded by the International Land and Forest Tenure Facility in Sweden.

Wleh cannot wait for the disagreement to be solved. She wants to witness the resolution as it is in the interest of the community. But she does not allow the impasse to spoil her party.

“I am happy for us to reach this level. During our forefathers’ time, they were blind to the system. I used to feel bad when people came to use the land. At the time we never knew anything,” Wleh recalls. “Whatever they wanted to do was what they would do here.

“If we have our land deed, it will be good for us. Nobody will come and say, ‘This place is mine.’ As long as I have my deed and you are coming on my land, there will be an agreement between us,” she says.

Wleh might be a bit cocky but her comments are not unfounded.

Lower Bokon is situated in a mining region, with little or no benefits to affected communities. Hummingbird, a British company, has operated there since 2019, according to official records. The records show that the Ministry of Mines and Energy has awarded 127 licenses in the region since 2013, predominantly for small-scale mining. Of that number 17 are active licenses.

Children fetch water at a hand pump in Diyenkpo, the headquarters of the Lower Bokon Clan in Jaedae District, Sinoe County. The Daylight/ Matenneh Keita

Despite these activities, the clan lacks a lot of necessities for its estimated 5,000 people. It lacks clinics, paved roads, and adequate water sources. Wleh and other Diyenkpo residents go to Karquekpo, the largest town in the region, for medication. The miners do not pay the clan anything.

The Land Rights Act empowers communities to buck that trend. With a deed, locals can enter into agreements with companies as parties to the investment, not just affected communities. They have the right to consent to or reject investment proposals.

“The kids we are having now, we want them to go to school so, that tomorrow we will benefit from them,” Wleh says. “When you come into our community and we tell you this is what we want and you cannot deliver, pack up your bag and leave.”

Monthly Archives: September 2024

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